Tensed Like the Strings of Amphion’s Lyre

There is a new moon in Libra this weekend and the Sun, Moon, Mercury and Venus conjoin in that sign. The image I have for this line up is of a four-string lyre, played by one of my favourite characters from Greek myth, Amphion. Libra holds taut the tension of the strings, without which there could be music. I’ll tell you the story of Amphion who I see an archetypal Mercury/Venus in Libra character. It’s a beautiful Libran story!

Amphion and Zethos were the twin sons of Zeus and Antiope. Like many of the herous of Greek they were raise in secrecy of a remote mountainside to avoid the malevolent forces that sought to destroy them in their infancy. While they were growing up on Mount Cithaeron, Amphion, the more sensitive of the brothers, attracted the favour of Hermes (Mercury) who gifted him a lyre. Amphion became devoted to the instrument and played it night and day. Zethos, his more practical brother taunted him and accused him of being lazy and good-for-nothing. As far as he was concerned, Amphion’s love of music prevented him from doing anything useful.

But later, after the two brothers had conquered Thebes and were set the task of rebuilding and fortifying the city, it was Amphion who had the last laugh. For while Zethos toiled to shift the mighty stones, Amphion simply played his lyre and the resonance of his music was so perfectly in harmony with the cosmos that the stones simply slid effortlessly into place. So it was that Seven-Gated Thebes was raised through the power of music!

This weekend is a perfect time to come together with someone you love and experience the creative tensions that exist between you, not by trying to make something happen and move the stones into place – but by tuning into the cosmic music and allowing it to happen naturally. It’s a time, where you can experience the world of possibility that opens up when you really allow that person’s unique “otherness” to meet you head on. Often, we relate to the significant others in our lives simply as a projections of the judgments and assumptions that we already hold about them. So take the opportunity during this beautiful Libran line-up to open up to this “other” really is.

I’m doing just that this weekend. I’m off to a couple’s tantra weekend with my wife Colette. I’m slightly apprehensive (I have an exact Venus-Saturn conjunction after all), but nonetheless open and ready to experience our relationship again, as if for the first time. How appropriate that it should be happening over a Libra new moon, with Amphion hitting the sweet spot!